OPET FESTIVAL عيد األوبت

John Coleman Darnell

EDITORS

WILLEKE WENDRICH Editor-in-Chief University of California, Los Angeles

JACCO DIELEMAN Editor Area Editor Religion University of California, Los Angeles

ELIZABETH FROOD Editor University of Oxford

JOHN BAINES Senior Editorial Consultant University of Oxford

Short Citation: Darnell, 2010, . UEE.

Full Citation: Darnell, John Coleman, 2010, Opet Festival. In Jacco Dieleman, Willeke Wendrich (eds.), UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology, Los Angeles. http://digital2.library.ucla.edu/viewItem.do?ark=21198/zz0025n765

1131 Version 1, December 2010 http://digital2.library.ucla.edu/viewItem.do?ark=21198/zz0025n765

OPET FESTIVAL عيد األوبت

John Coleman Darnell

Opetfest Fête d’Opet

The annual Opet Festival, during which the bark of —and ultimately those of , Khons, and the king as well—journeyed from to , became a central religious celebration of ancient Thebes during the 18th Dynasty. The rituals of the Opet Festival celebrated the sacred marriage of Amun—with whom the king merged—and Mut, resulting in the proper transmission of the royal ka and thus ensuring the maintenance of kingship. أصبح االحتفال بعيد األوبت السنوي احتفال ديني مركزي في طيبة القديمة أثناء األسرة الثامنة عشرة حيث كان يبحر خالله آمون بمركبه وتلحقه موت وخونسو وكذلك الملك، من معبد الكرنك إلى معبد األقصر. وكانت الطقوس الخاصة بعيد األوبت تحتفل بالزواج المقدس آلمون، والذي قد إندمج معه الملك، وموت مما ينتج عنه انتقال صحيح لـل <<كا>> الملكيه، مما يضمن بقاء الملكية واستمراريتھا.

he Opet Festival, eponymous Festival is also known (Epigraphic Survey celebration of the month Paophi 1934: pls. 157 - 158, list 39, III Akhet 17). The T (second month of the Akhet final day of the festival occurred on III Akhet season), was an annual event at the time of its 2 during Piye’s visit to Thebes (Grimal 1981: earliest attestation during the reign of 15*, line 26). The festival appears to have (Lacau and Chevrier 1977 - 1979: continued into the Roman Period (Herbin 158; no suggestion of a pre-18th Dynasty 1994: 151 - 153, 299; compare the probable origin is conclusive, see also Murnane 1982: reference at Esna, Grimm 1994: 40 - 41 and 577; Waitkus 2008: 224). Opet began on II 244, n. L15a; see also Klotz 2008), and echoes Akhet 15 under Thutmose III and lasted 11 thereof may have survived in Coptic (Nagel days (Sethe 1907: 824, line 10); by the 1983: 45) and Islamic celebrations as well beginning of the reign of Ramesses III, the (Legrain 1914: 83 - 91). festival stretched over 24 days (II Akhet 19 - The name of the festival, Hb Ipt, relates to III Akhet 12; Epigraphic Survey 1934: pls. 153 that of , Ip(A)t-rsyt, which was - 156, lists 29 - 38), perhaps with three days perhaps the Upper Egyptian counterpart of an added to the conclusion of the festival by the earlier Heliopolitan IpAt (Postel and Régen end of his reign (Schott 1950: 85, nos. 40 - 41; 2005: 267 - 268), the “southern” specification Grandet 1994, Vol. 2: 89 - 90 suggests a 24 relating Luxor Temple to that northern shrine day observance at , with 27 and not to Karnak; the Opet Festival’s days of festivities on the east bank). The eve relationship to Heliopolitan prototypes would of Opet was also observed (Epigraphic Survey explain a number of Heliopolitan toponyms 1934: list 28, pls. 153 - 154; Grimal 1981: 15*, that appear in Luxor Temple as probable lines 25 - 26; Kruchten 1986: 69 - 71), and a references to portions or aspects of Luxor Festival of Amun that Occurs after the Opet

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Figure 1. The third bark shrine of Hatshepsut on the processional route between Karnak and Luxor Temples, as depicted in the Red Chapel at Karnak. The name of Hatshepsut in the text beneath the prow of the bark of Amun has been removed, along with depictions of Osiride statues of the ruler at both ends of the shrine. Temple itself (compare Bell 1985b: 272 - 273; (Epigraphic Survey 1979: pls. 19 - 23); and Epigraphic Survey 1998: commentary textually, the most explicit and nuanced booklet p. 23 and pl. 171 B, line 5). The indications of the significance of the festival participants may have considered the are the songs recorded in Tutankhamen’s multiple-day event to consist of various sub- Opet scenes. festivals grouped together (Epigraphic Survey The earliest and one of the most informative 1994: 28 n. a to pl. 78). series of scenes appears on the south side of The ancient inscriptional sources for the the Red Chapel of Hatshepsut and Thutmose events of the Opet Festival are primarily III at Karnak (Burgos et al. 2006: 46 - 53, reg. pictorial and mostly located within Karnak 3, and 60 - 65, reg. 5; Lacau and Chevrier Temple (for most, see Meyer 1998: 135 - 136; 1977 - 1979: 154 - 169, 174 - 204, pls. 7 and 9; Murnane 1982: 577 - 578, n. 15; Waitkus Troy 2006: 140 - 141). These scenes reveal the 2008: 224 - 235 and 238 - 254): Hatshepsut transportation of the bark of Amun from and Thutmose III—Red Chapel, Karnak, and Karnak along a land route (Waitkus 2008: 224 Deir el-Bahri; Thutmose III—Akhmenu, - 227); stopping at six bark shrines on the way Karnak; Amenhotep III—third , to Luxor, Amun’s bark then returned to Karnak; Tutankhamen—colonnade hall, Karnak by water, his riverine barge towed by Luxor; —court between the ninth the royal barge. After a stop in the wsxt-Hbt, and tenth pylons, Karnak; Sety I—hypostyle the festival courtyard of the temple, priests hall, Karnak; Ramesses II—court between the carried the portable bark to the chapel of eighth and ninth pylons, Karnak; Ramesses Amenhotep I, Mn-mnw-Imn. To the III—bark shrine in first court, Karnak, and accompaniment of singers, musicians, and Medinet Habu (Epigraphic Survey 1940: pl. acrobats, the bark finally made its way toward 237); Herihor—Khons Temple, Karnak. the Hwt-aAt (“the great mansion”) and Although no text overtly explains the ultimately the inner sanctuary of Karnak. significance of the event, the Opet-procession Hatshepsut’s scenes attest six shrines (fig. scenes of Hatshepsut and Thutmose III on 1)—embellished with Osiride figures of the the Red Chapel, and those of Tutankhamen in queen—along some portion of the route the colonnade hall, reveal a number of between Karnak and Luxor (Cabrol 2001: 528 otherwise unattested aspects of the festival, - 541; Konrad 2006: 134, n. 927; Waitkus with the scenes of Herihor in Khons Temple 2008: 226 - 227), the first in south Karnak, supplying additional details of the navigation

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Figure 2. The vanguard of the Opet-procession returning to Karnak Temple at the end of the festival. The musicians are about to enter the third pylon, with the porch of Amenhotep IV. From the festival scenes of Tutankhamen in the colonnade hall of Luxor Temple. possibly near the temple of Kamutef, the rest indicative of an entirely terrestrial journey—is as yet unidentified. Portions of a structure of uncertain, associations between the southern Hatshepsut, probably the shrine nearest the axis of Karnak and the Opet Festival support temple of Luxor, were incorporated into the such a reconstruction (see Cabrol 2001: 540 - bark shrine of Ramesses II in the first court, 541). Only the bark of Amun appears under perhaps near the shrine’s original location Hatshepsut (according to Cabrol 2001: 525, it (Bell 1986, 1997: 163 - 164, 296 notes 126 - is not certain if other barks were present at 128; Gabolde 1986; Waitkus 2008: 227). Luxor under Amenhotep III; see, however, Although the assumed line of six shrines Bell 1997: 154 - 156, 290 n. 76, and 293 - 294 stretching between Karnak and Luxor— n. 108; and Murnane 1985), but by the reign

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of Tutankhamen, the barks of Amun, Mut, for the deity traveling within the portable and Khons, along with that of the king, took bark, both on the deck of the riverine barge part in the festival. and the shoulders of the priests. The presence of Opet related scenes in the Although the earliest attestation of the Akhmenu suggests that under the sole rule of festival and the earliest surviving 18th Dynasty Thutmose III, the festival may have begun in constructions at Luxor date to the reign of that temple (see Bell 1997: 157 - 176 for a Hatshepsut (Cabrol 2001: 522 - 523; Habachi reconstruction of the course of the festival; 1965; for architrave fragments of Sobekhotep note, however, Waitkus 2008: 240 and n. I—possibly from Karnak—reused as statue 1496). The bark of Amun would have exited bases at Luxor, see Eder 2002: 140; the third pylon, as in the Tutankhamen scene Pamminger 1992: 129 n. 201; Ryholt 1997: on the west wall in the colonnade hall at 336), one expects an ultimate 11th Dynasty Luxor (fig. 2; Epigraphic Survey 1994: 7, 38 - origin, as for the three other major nodes of 39). By the reign of Tutankhamen, and the Theban festival cycle (Darnell fc.; perhaps already under Amenhotep III, to Ullmann 2007). A platform in the area of the judge from architectural evidence at Luxor ninth pylon at Karnak may date to the reign Temple, the bark of Khons would have joined of Senusret I, suggesting the presence of a the procession in southern Karnak, before the processional route leading south from entourage reached the area of the Mut Temple Karnak, along the route of the later north- and the first of Hatshepsut’s shrines on the south axis, presumably connecting Middle land route. Under Tutankhamen, after being Kingdom Karnak with a contemporaneous joined by the bark of Mut, the procession structure at or near the later Luxor Temple then proceeded to the embarkation, river (Van Siclen 2005). The reign of Amenhotep west of Hatshepsut’s northernmost bark III molded the procession and its architectural shrine (Bell 1997: 294 - 295 n. 112; Cabrol destination into the forms we recognize. 2001: 143 - 145; again Waitkus 2008: 243 - Amenhotep III embellished Luxor Temple 244 disagrees). Although the New Kingdom considerably, notably with the colonnade hall, riverine barge Amun-Userhat existed under an elaborate bark shrine as columned hall (like Ahmose (Gabolde 2003: 422 - 428) and some the hypostyle hall at Karnak, see Rondot sort of vessel participated in the Beautiful 1997: 151 n. 221; contra Pamminger 1992 that Festival of the Wadi already during the early it is a model of the Nile); he may also have Middle Kingdom (Arnold 1974: 26 - 27 and constructed a maru-temple in association with pls. 22 - 23; Gabolde 1998: 49 - 51, pls. 9 - the Opet Festival (Konrad 2006: 132 - 137; 10), the Opet scenes of Tutankhamen are the Manniche 1982: 272; but see also Cabrol first to depict a river journey in both 2001: 600 - 607; Klug 2002: 404 n. 3160). The directions (figs. 3 and 4); the procession architecture of the rooms immediately south disembarked at Luxor (for a possible Luxor of the hypostyle hall of Luxor Temple dock under Ramesses III, see Cabrol 2001: suggests that the bark of the king, first visible 607 - 608) and entered the court of Luxor in Tutankhamen’s Opet scenes, was already an Temple before the colonnade hall, ultimately element of the procession under Amenhotep through the west wall entrance of the III (Bell 1985b: 260 - 263; Epigraphic Survey Ramesside court (Cabrol 2001: 526). The text 1994: 29 and pl. 80). The transformation of on a of on the route Amenhotep III from an individual ruler to the between Karnak and Luxor (Cabrol 2001: 283 personification of the royal ka through a - 296) describes the construction blurring of the boundary between the person (refurbishment) of the route for Amun, r of the king and the royal ka-nature in the rear jr[=f] Xn=f nfr m Ipt rsyt, “so that he might rooms of Luxor Temple suggests that the carry out his good navigation in Luxor” Opet Festival under Amenhotep III and his (Cabrol 2001: 290, text 4), revealing that the successors became amongst other things a basic sense of “navigation” would be the same ritual of reconfirming the transmission of the

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Figure 3. A depiction of the barge of Queen Ankhesenamen (later usurped for Mutnodjmet) towing the r iverine bark of the goddess Mut from Karnak Temple to Luxor Temple during the Festival of Opet. Soldiers assist with towing the divine bark, with accompanying Nubian dancers and military escort. Note the images of Ankhesenamen accompanying Tutankhamen in smiting scenes on the fore- and after-castles of the royal barge (she extends her own scimitar in the latter scene). From the festival scenes of Tutankhamen in the colonnade hall of Luxor Temple.

Figure 4. The royal barge, with assisting towboats, hauling the riverine bark of Amun (not visible in this portion of the larger scene). From the Opet Festival scenes of Herihor in the court of Khons Temple, Karnak. royal ka (Bell 1985b; Refai 1998, restating festival (see Waitkus 2008: 232 - 233, 240 – Bell’s arguments with comparison to other 241, and 260). Theban festivals; Waitkus 2008: 263, 280 - Opet was not, however, solely a festival of 281, et passim disagrees). A later ruler might royal identification with Amun. The riverine also begin to mingle his identity with that of procession and the divine birth chamber an earlier incarnation of the royal ka (compare become in late temple ritual the navigation of the blending of Tutankhamen and a god or goddess to the other to consummate Amenhotep III in the texts to the scenes on the union that will result in the divine birth of the two southernmost columns in the the child god depicted—in borrowing from colonnade hall, see Epigraphic Survey 1998: royal iconography of the New Kingdom—in pls. 188 - 189 and p. 42), and a statue of the the birth chamber of the temple, the mammisi celebrating ruler’s immediate (legitimate) (Brunner 1986: 213 - 215; Finnestad 1997: predecessor may have participated in the 303, n. 13). Opet was also a hieros gamos

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Figure 5. Sety I (with a depiction of the north entrance to the colonnade hall behind him) offers to the barks of Amun, Mut, and Khons in Luxor Temple, during the Festival of Opet. From the festival scenes in the colonnade hall of Luxor Temple. Though carved under Sety I, the scenes appear to belong to an initial cartoon from the reign of Tutankhamen. Note the absence of the royal bark in the depiction of Luxor Temple, although the bark appears in the scene of the divine barks departing Luxor Temple on the return journey to Karnak.

(Pamminger 1992: 94; Wolf 1931: 72 - 73), a accompanying elements keeping pace on land. divine marriage, the result of which was the Tutankhamen’s scenes allude to the terrestrial renewal of Amun in the person of his ever- route by depicting two empty royal chariots, renewing human vessel, the reigning king. As attended by charioteers (Epigraphic Survey the Amun- procession related the physical 1994: pls. 22 and 95)—elements from the ruler to his predecessors (Epigraphic Survey daily chariot ride of the royal Atenist 1940: pls. 213 - 214; see also Gauthier 1931: couple in and out of Akhetaten, transported 204 - 206; Redford 1986: 34 - 37), so the Opet to Thebes and incorporated into the Opet Festival celebrated the renewal of the ka-force Festival (Darnell and Manassa 2007; Kákosy of Amun, and the transmission of the spirit of 1977: 39 - 40, 80). The bark of the king makes kingship in the eternal present. As a festival of its first appearance in the Opet-procession annual renewal, the Opet Festival could scenes of Tutankhamen at Luxor Temple (see reconfirm the royal coronation, which under Epigraphic Survey 1994: pls. 11 and 117) as a Horemheb actually occurred at the time of the carrier for the processional image of the Opet Festival (Gardiner 1953: pl. II, lines 13 - divine ruler (in evidence from the time of the 15; Spalinger 1995; for the coronation of Second Intermediate Period, see Darnell 2002: Arikeamenote coinciding with the Opet 104; Pamminger 1993: 85 and n. 16). The bark Festival, see Kormysheva 1998: 84 - 89). The of the king leaves Karnak and returns thereto, final major festival of Luxor, the Decade but is not present in Luxor Temple in Festival with its visit to Medinet Habu, Tutankhamen’s scenes of the festival (fig. brought Amun of Luxor into contact with the 5)—apparently the king has merged with entropic forces of death through his meeting Amun during the procession into Luxor with the primeval and transcendental forms of making the royal bark superfluous (Bell 1985a; Amun and the Ogdoad on the west bank of Murnane 1982: 576). Amun of Luxor appears Luxor. to have been a fecundity figure, both ram- headed and ithyphallic anthropomorphic, By the late 18th Dynasty, both legs of the related to Nubia and the inundation procession traveled on the Nile, with (Pamminger 1992, 1996: 437 - 439; Waitkus

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Figure 6. Priestesses and priests singing the “Songs of the Drinking Place” during the Opet Festival. From the festival scenes of Tutankhamen in the colonnade hall of Luxor Temple. 2008: 216 - 222, 264 - 266, 299 - 300), 1994: 12 - 14; Junker 1942: 43 - 44; Sethe appropriate both to the southern node of the 1929: 1 - 5; Wolf 1931: 16 [7], 35 [6], 56 - 57, east bank Theban festival cycle and to the 73 - 74; parallel texts for the second song, ram-form of the deified ruler in Nubia (Bell from the Red Chapel of Hatshepsut and the 1985a; Pamminger 1993). Akhmenu of Thutmose III, appear in Lacau and Chevrier 1977 - 1979: 187 - 189 [§§265 - The union of a god with his temple may 268]; see also Altenmüller 1998: 764; Burgos appear as a sexual union (Darnell 1994: 40 - et al. 2006: 60 - 61). The songs are apparently 44), and the nautical element of the Opet quite ancient (the sky as wings evokes the 1st Festival is appropriate to a divine marriage Dynasty comb of Wadj, see Westendorf 1966: ritual (Altenmüller 1998: 753 - 765). Although 22 - 24), and the recitation for the bark in the absent from later Opet scenes, Hatshepsut’s third song appears already in the 6th Dynasty Red Chapel records a harpist singing a song tomb of Mereruka at Saqqara (Epigraphic (Burgos et al. 2006: 64) referring to the Survey 1939: pl. 141; cited by Barguet 1962: ithyphallic form of the double-plumed Amun, 176 n. 3; Barta 1983: 102). raised of arm (Dsr-a). Songs in the tomb of Amenemhat also refer to the appearance of First Song: the god from the temple (wbn, appropriate for “Oh Amun, Lord of the Thrones of the Two Amun appearing in festival; so regarding the [Lan]ds, may you live forever! Beautiful Festival of the Wadi in Spiegelberg A drinking place is hewn out, the sky is folded back 1921: pl. 107, no. 968; and for the goddess to the south; Mut as well, see Epigraphic Survey 1994: pl. a drinking place is hewn out, the sky is folded back to 83) and describe the temple of Karnak as a the north; woman, drunk in religious ecstasy and attired that the sailors of Tutankhamen (usurped by in erotically Hathoric coiffure, awaiting with Horemheb), beloved of Amun--Kamutef, praised bed linens the arrival of the god (Darnell of the gods, may drink.” 1995: 59 - 62)—although that song is not Utterance of . clearly specific to Opet, the content may The directions, south and north, may allude mirror that of the unrecorded song of the Red to the southeast to northwest flight of the sun Chapel’s Opet harpist. (Westendorf 1966: 23). The implied south to The Tutankhamen scenes record the texts of north journey of this song—like the actual three songs accompanying the navigations return to Karnak from Luxor at the end of the (fig. 6), chanted by priests and priestesses (see Opet Festival—relates to the royal New the author’s text edition in Epigraphic Survey Year’s Festival and the return of the

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wandering solar goddess from the south The ways of the Akeru are bound up for you; (Kessler 1988). The drinking place would be is high. one of the booths that celebrants erected May you pacify the Two Ladies, oh Lord of the during nautical festivals (Darnell 1991: 76 - White Crown/Red Crown. 80; Epigraphic Survey 1994: pls. 67 and 68; Fischer-Elfert 1999). Such booths are It is , strong of arm, who conveys the god with consistent with the aspect of sexual union she the good one of the god. inherent in the Opet Festival (compare For the king has already done the best of good references in the love poetry, see Derchain things.” 1975: 82 - 86; Fox 1985: 14 - 16, 46, and 48 n. The ways of Aker allude to the east/west q); Neith probably appears in her role as axis of the solar journey, parallel to the first “Lady of inebriation in the (season of) the song’s “royal” south/north axis (see Cauville fresh inundation waters” (Žabkar 1988: 107, 1983; Loeben 1990: 67; compare also the pl. 21, fig. 8, and p. 181 n. 25). The journey by double axis of Luxor, the north/south land and a return by river—as the Opet processional forecourts, and the east/west Festival appears under Hatshepsut and orientation of Room XVII in the southern, Thutmose III—would thus evoke the dry solar temple—see Brunner 1977: 79 - 82). The period prior to the union of the god and songs associate the festival journey to the returning solar goddess, the return to the course of the sun (recognition of the solar north by river likewise emphasizing the aspect already by Foucart 1924: 123 - 126; see returning flood. The journey to the south by also the discussion of the first song above), land, and the towing of the barks against the and at the same time allude to sexuality (Barta current in the southerly riverine journey, also 1975: 112 relates these songs to a hieros gamos mirrored the nocturnal journey of the sun in intended to release the fertility of the the dry realms of the Land of Sokar (for the Inundation). The “best of good things” finds bark of Amun on its journey from Karnak to echoes in New Kingdom love poetry (Fox Luxor during the Opet Festival compared to 1985: 22), a term for the consummation of the night bark of Ra, see Epigraphic Survey sexual union. A further detail confirming the 1994: 7 and pls. 22 - 23; Herbin 1994: 152). sexual aspect of the festival is a statement of a The sails of the barks appear to have been red priest who bends forward and addresses the in color, the return journey to Karnak thus bark of Amun as it emerges from Luxor evoking the red light of dawn, the veil of the Temple at the end of the Opet Festival: “How new born (for the red cloth, see weary is the cackling goose!” (Epigraphic Darnell 2004: 72, 133 - 137, and 197 n. 139; Survey 1994: 26 and pl. 67). This short for the red sail, see Epigraphic Survey 1979: statement alludes to the cry of creation pl. 20, line 6). uttered by the great cackler in the eastern Second Song: horizon, appropriate to the smn-goose form of Recitation: Amun as the deity prepares to sail to Karnak. “Hail, Amun, primeval one of the Two Lands, Accompanying the singing priests and foremost one of Karnak, priestesses are dancing foreigners: soldiers in your glorious appearance amidst your [riverine] dressed as Libyans and using throwsticks as fleet, clappers, and Nubians leaping and swaying in on your beautiful Festival of Opet— a type of military dance with clubs (fig. 7; May you be pleased with it.” Darnell and Manassa 2007: 204 - 206; Third Song: Epigraphic Survey 1994: pls. 25, 28, 32, 38, Recitation four times—Recitation for the 91, 94, 96, 99). The presence of Nubians and bark: Libyans is probably meant to evoke the “A drinking place is built for the party, which is in groups amongst whom the solar eye goddess the voyage of the fleet. has recently sojourned, members of whom

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Figure 7. Dancing Nubians and military escort accompanying the Opet-procession. From the festival scenes of Tutankhamen in the colonnade hall of Luxor Temple. join her entourage for the return to colonnade hall (Epigraphic Survey 1994: pl. (Darnell 1995: 64 - 79). Also acrobatic dancers 20; compare an Aswan rock inscription of accompany the festival procession Sety I: “Nobles and meshkeb-officers hurry (Epigraphic Survey 1994: pls. 37 - 38), the along the shore, while the king’s eldest son is backward-leaning dance at once an evocation before them, performing akhu-beatifications,” of the dance of the four winds (Kurth 1994) see Habachi 1973: 119 - 122). and a display of eroticism (compare Sauneron The general populace appears to have been 1968: 286 - 287, text no. 344 on column no. able to observe from the riverbanks (Darnell 14; 1962: 41ff.). 2003: 44), and at least some may have had Soldiers and sailors are the most numerous limited access to the forepart of the temple of the festival participants in the colonnade (Bell 1985b: 270 - 271, 275; Kruchten 1986: hall scenes, and a number of military and civil 257 - 258). Celebrants may also have observed officials participated in the preparations and the event at other locations, such as the execution of the Opet Festival; Ramesses II of Ramesses III at Medinet listed amongst those responsible for arranging Habu (Haring 1997: 187), and a the festival: members of the civil transplantation to Abydos appears to have administration, provincial governors, border occurred (Cabrol 2001: 741). Oracular officials, heads of internal economic manifestations of Amun could also occur departments, officers of the commissariat, city during the festival (compare Kruchten 1986: officials, and upper ranks of the priesthood 252 - 265, 337 - 354), further relating events (Hirsch 2006: 153, refs. n. 91, and p. 198, tab. of the festival procession to the populace. 18; contra the objections of Spalinger 1998). During the second regnal year of a late 21st In addition to overseeing aspects of the food Dynasty ruler, the bark of Amun refused to preparation (Epigraphic Survey 1994: pls. 36 leave his sanctuary for the Opet Festival, and 40) and rowing and towing the divine which finally took place sixty-five days later barges, at least one military official than usual, on day 23 of Khoiak, after the pronounces a hymn in honor of the king in priest whose offenses occasioned the delay front of the Opet-procession as it heads to had appeared before a tribunal (Kruchten Luxor on the west interior wall of the 1991: 182 - 184).

Bibliographic Notes The chief pictorial and textual sources for the Opet Festival appear in Burgos et al. (2006), updating Lacau and Chevrier (1977 - 1979), and Epigraphic Survey (1979: pls. 20 - 23; and 1994). The only well documented overview of the festival remains Murnane (1982), with additional commentary on the significance of the ritual events in Bell (1985b, 1997); Waitkus (2008) is overall skeptical of much of the evidence for the festival. The lengthiest texts associated with the

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Opet Festival are the “Songs of the Drinking Place,” with translations and commentary in Epigraphic Survey (1994: 12 - 14). Discussions of specific aspects of the festival include Cabrol (1999, 2001), Kruchten (1991), Meyer (1998), and Pamminger (1996).

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Klug, Andrea 2002 Königliche Stelen in der Zeit von Ahmose bis Amenophis III. Monumenta Aegyptiaca 8. Turnhout: Brepols. Konrad, Kirsten 2006 Architektur und Theologie: Pharaonische Tempelterminologie unter Berücksichtigung konigsideologischer̈ Aspekte. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. Kormysheva, Eleonora 1998 Festkalender im Kawa-Tempel. In Feste im Tempel: 4. Ägyptologische Tempeltagung, Köln, 10. - 12. Oktober 1996, Ägypten und Altes Testament 33/2, ed. Rolf Gundlach, and Matthias Rochholz, pp. 77 - 89. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. Kruchten, Jean-Marie 1986 Le grand texte oraculaire de Djéhoutymose. Monographies Reine Elisabeth 5. Brussels: Fondation egyptologiqué Reine Elisabeth. 1991 L'année ou la fête d'Opet n'eut pas lieu en Paophi. Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 77, pp. 182 - 184. Kurth, Dieter 1994 Das Lied von den vier Winden und seine angebliche pantomimische Darstellung. In Essays in Egyptology in honor of Hans Goedicke, ed. Betsy Bryan, and David Lorton, pp. 135 - 146. San Antonio: Van Siclen Books. Lacau, Pierre, and Henri Chevrier 1977- Une chapelle d'Hatshepsout à Karnak. 2 volumes (1977 - 1979). Cairo: Institut français d'archéologie orientale du Caire. Legrain, Georges 1914 Louqsor sans les pharaons: Legendes et chansons populaires de la Haute Egypte. Brussels and Paris: Vromant & Co. Loeben, Christian 1990 Bemerkungen zum Horustempel des Neuen Reiches in Edfu. Bulletin de la Société d' egyptologié Genève 14, pp. 57 - 68. Manniche, Lise 1982 The Maru built by Amenophis III: Its significance and possible location. In L’Égyptologie en 1979: Axes prioritaires de recherches, Vol. 2, pp. 271 - 274. Paris: Editions du Centre national de la recherche scientifique. Meyer, Sibylle 1998 Festlieder zum Auszug Gottes. In Feste im Tempel: 4. Ägyptologische Tempeltagung, Köln, 10. - 12. Oktober 1996, Ägypten und Altes Testament 33, ed. Rolf Gundlach, and Matthias Rochholz. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. Murnane, William 1982 Opetfest. In Lexikon der Ägyptologie, Vol. 4 (columns 574 - 579), ed. Wolfgang Helck, and Wolfhard Westendorf. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz. 1985 False-doors and cult practices inside Luxor Temple. In Mélanges Gamal Eddin Mokhtar, Vol. 2, Bibliothèque d'étude 97, pp. 135 - 148. Cairo: Institut français d'archéologie orientale. Nagel, Peter 1983 Das Triadon: Ein sahidisches Lehrgedicht des 14. Jahrhunderts. Halle: Abt. Wissenschaftspublizistik der Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg. Pamminger, Peter 1992 Amun und Luxor: Der Widder und das Kultbild. Beiträge zur Sudanforschung 5, pp. 93 - 138. 1993 Zur Göttlichkeit Amenophis' III. Bulletin de la Société d'égyptologie Genève 17, pp. 83 - 92. 1996 Amenophis III. und die Götter von Luxor. Antike Welt 27(6), pp. 433 - 443.

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Wolf, Walther 1931 Das schonë Fest von Opet: Die Festzugsdarstellung im grossen Saulengangë des Tempels von Luksor. Leipzig: J. C. Hinrichs. Žabkar, Louis 1988 Hymns to in her temple at Philae. Hanover: University Press of New England.

Image Credits Figure 1. The third bark shrine of Hatshepsut on the processional route between Karnak and Luxor Temples, as depicted in the Red Chapel at Karnak. The name of Hatshepsut in the text beneath the prow of the bark of Amun has been removed, along with depictions of Osiride statues of the ruler at both ends of the shrine. Photograph by the author. Figure 2. The vanguard of the Opet-procession returning to Karnak Temple at the end of the festival. The musicians are about to enter the third pylon, with the porch of Amenhotep IV. From the festival scenes of Tutankhamen in the colonnade hall of Luxor Temple. (Epigraphic Survey 1994: pl. 105, reproduced courtesy of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago.) Figure 3. A depiction of the barge of Queen Ankhesenamen (later usurped for Mutnodjmet) towing the riverine bark of the goddess Mut from Karnak Temple to Luxor Temple during the Festival of Opet. Soldiers assist with towing the divine bark, with accompanying Nubian dancers and military escort. Note the images of Ankhesenamen accompanying Tutankhamen in smiting scenes on the fore- and after-castles of the royal barge (she extends her own scimitar in the latter scene). From the festival scenes of Tutankhamen in the colonnade hall of Luxor Temple. (Epigraphic Survey 1994: pl. 28, reproduced courtesy of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago.) Figure 4. The royal barge, with assisting towboats, hauling the riverine bark of Amun (not visible in this portion of the larger scene). From the Opet Festival scenes of Herihor in the court of Khons Temple, Karnak. (Epigraphic Survey 1979: pl. 20, reproduced courtesy of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago.) Figure 5. Sety I (with a depiction of the north entrance to the colonnade hall behind him) offers to the barks of Amun, Mut, and Khons in Luxor Temple, during the Festival of Opet. From the festival scenes in the colonnade hall of Luxor Temple. Though carved under Sety I, the scenes appear to belong to an initial cartoon from the reign of Tutankhamen. Note the absence of the royal bark in the depiction of Luxor Temple, although the bark appears in the scene of the divine barks departing Luxor Temple on the return journey to Karnak. (Epigraphic Survey 1994: pl. 56, reproduced courtesy of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago.) Figure 6. Priestesses and priests singing the “Songs of the Drinking Place” during the Opet Festival. From the festival scenes of Tutankhamen in the colonnade hall of Luxor Temple. (Epigraphic Survey 1994: pl. 26, reproduced courtesy of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago.) Figure 7. Dancing Nubians and military escort accompanying the Opet-procession. From the festival scenes of Tutankhamen in the colonnade hall of Luxor Temple. (Epigraphic Survey 1994: pl. 94, reproduced courtesy of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago.)

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